The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Overview and evaluation at standard resolution

This work documents the first version of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) new Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv1). We focus on the standard resolution of the fully coupled physical model designed to address DOE mission-relevant water cycle questions. Its components include atmosphere and land (110-km grid spacing), ocean and sea ice (60 km in the midlatitudes and 30 km at the equator and poles), and river transport (55 km) models. This base configuration will also serve as a foundation for additional configurations exploring higher horizontal resolution as well as augmented capabilities in the form of biogeochemistry and cryosphere configurations. The performance of E3SMv1 is evaluated by means of a standard set of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Characterization of Klima simulations consisting of a long preindustrial control, historical simulations (ensembles of fully coupled and prescribed SSTs) as well as idealized CO2 forcing simulations. The model performs well overall with biases typical of other CMIP-class models, although the simulated Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is weaker than many CMIP-class models. While the E3SMv1 historical ensemble captures the bulk of the observed warming between preindustrial (1850) and present day, the trajectory of the warming diverges from observations in the second half of the twentieth century with a period of delayed warming followed by an excessive warming trend. Using a two-layer energy balance model, we attribute this divergence to the model's strong aerosol-related effective radiative forcing (ERFari+aci = −1.65 W/m2) and high equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS = 5.3 K).

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Related Links

Related Dataset #1 : input4MIPs.SOLARIS-HEPPA.solar.CMIP.SOLARIS-HEPPA-3-2

Related Dataset #2 : Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data, Version 1

Related Dataset #3 : NOAA/NSIDC Climate Data Record of Passive Microwave Sea Ice Concentration, Version 3

Related Dataset #4 : Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature (ERSST), Version 4

Related Dataset #5 : Atlantic meridional overturning circulation observed by the RAPID-MOCHA-WBTS (RAPID-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array-Western Boundary Time Series) array at 26N from 2004 to 2017.

Related Dataset #6 : Historical Emissions (1750 - 2014) - CEDS - v2017-05-18

Related Dataset #7 : Biomass Burning emissions for CMIP6 (v1.2)

Related Dataset #8 : NOAA Global Surface Temperature Dataset, Version 4.0

Related Software #1 : Cice-Consortium/Icepack Version 1.0.2

Related Software #2 : E3Sm-Project/A-Prime: A-Prime Release Version V1.2
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Author Golaz, J.
Caldwell, P. M.
Van Roekel, L. P.
Petersen, M. R.
Tang, Q.
Wolfe, J. D.
Abeshu, G.
Anantharaj, V.
Asay-Davis, X. S.
Bader, D. C.
Baldwin, S. A.
Bisht, G.
Bogenschutz, P. A.
Branstetter, M.
Brunke, M. A.
Brus, S. R.
Burrows, S. M.
Cameron-Smith, P. J.
Donahue, A. S.
Deakin, M.
Easter, R. C.
Evans, K. J.
Feng, Y.
Flanner, M.
Foucar, J. G.
Fyke, J. G.
Griffin, B. M.
Hannay, Cecile E.
Harrop, B. E.
Hoffman, M. J.
Hunke, E. C.
Jacob, R. L.
Jacobsen, D. W.
Jeffery, N.
Jones, P. W.
Keen, N. D.
Klein, S. A.
Larson, V. E.
Leung, L. R.
Li, H.
Lin, W.
Lipscomb, William
Ma, P.
Mahajan, S.
Maltrud, M. E.
Mametjanov, A.
McClean, J. L.
McCoy, R. B.
Neale, Richard
Price, S. F.
Qian, Y.
Rasch, P. J.
Reeves Eyre, J. E. J.
Riley, W. J.
Ringler, T. D.
Roberts, A. F.
Roesler, E. L.
Salinger, A. G.
Shaheen, Z.
Shi, X.
Singh, B.
Tang, J.
Taylor, M. A.
Thornton, P. E.
Turner, A. K.
Veneziani, M.
Wan, H.
Wang, H.
Wang, S.
Williams, D. N.
Wolfram, P. J.
Worley, P. H.
Xie, S.
Yang, Y.
Yoon, J.
Zelinka, M. D.
Zender, C. S.
Zeng, X.
Zhang, C.
Zhang, K.
Zhang, Y.
Zheng, X.
Zhou, T.
Zhu, Q.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2019-08-08T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:26:26.713217
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:22756
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Golaz, J., Caldwell, P. M., Van Roekel, L. P., Petersen, M. R., Tang, Q., Wolfe, J. D., Abeshu, G., Anantharaj, V., Asay-Davis, X. S., Bader, D. C., Baldwin, S. A., Bisht, G., Bogenschutz, P. A., Branstetter, M., Brunke, M. A., Brus, S. R., Burrows, S. M., Cameron-Smith, P. J., Donahue, A. S., Deakin, M., Easter, R. C., Evans, K. J., Feng, Y., Flanner, M., Foucar, J. G., Fyke, J. G., Griffin, B. M., Hannay, Cecile E., Harrop, B. E., Hoffman, M. J., Hunke, E. C., Jacob, R. L., Jacobsen, D. W., Jeffery, N., Jones, P. W., Keen, N. D., Klein, S. A., Larson, V. E., Leung, L. R., Li, H., Lin, W., Lipscomb, William, Ma, P., Mahajan, S., Maltrud, M. E., Mametjanov, A., McClean, J. L., McCoy, R. B., Neale, Richard, Price, S. F., Qian, Y., Rasch, P. J., Reeves Eyre, J. E. J., Riley, W. J., Ringler, T. D., Roberts, A. F., Roesler, E. L., Salinger, A. G., Shaheen, Z., Shi, X., Singh, B., Tang, J., Taylor, M. A., Thornton, P. E., Turner, A. K., Veneziani, M., Wan, H., Wang, H., Wang, S., Williams, D. N., Wolfram, P. J., Worley, P. H., Xie, S., Yang, Y., Yoon, J., Zelinka, M. D., Zender, C. S., Zeng, X., Zhang, C., Zhang, K., Zhang, Y., Zheng, X., Zhou, T., Zhu, Q.. (2019). The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Overview and evaluation at standard resolution. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d72v2d94. Accessed 02 August 2025.

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